Friday, April 25, 2014

The past week has been spent putting the final touches on everything for the booth that Stephanie and I will have at the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber tomorrow. I have had so much fun putting the Ready to Knit kit's together, sewing the bags for the Limited Edition Mother of Dragons kit's and making the stitch markers to go with them. Here is a sneak peek of the Mother of Dragons kit. The yarn is Indieway Yarns First String Plus and is a lovely Superwash Merino/Nylon blend.

Stephanie and I decided that we had better do a dry run with the tent, tables and some of the displays so she came over last night. We set up on the patio and had a blast figuring out where everything was going to go. Hopefully this will save us some time in the early morning hours tomorrow while we set up.

I am coveting that painting of the llama wearing glasses that Stephanie painted! I know just where I would hang it too.

I already had the majority of my stuff packed up. I set up my tables and a few other things to make sure they would fit under the tent with everything else. It worked out well and we are good to go! I've had everything staged by the stairwell for a couple of days. I think Andy will be glad it's out of the house!

We are all packed up and ready to go! Since Steph and I live about and hour away from each other and we underestimated how much we were taking, we decided to take separate cars and meet up at the festival grounds. I will take lots of pictures and hopefully one of us will have time to watch the alpaca shearing so I will have that to share with you too. I think we are going to have a fun day and I am really looking forward to it!

The little bit of knitting that I have had time to do this week! It doesn't look like I did much, does it? I really didn't have as much time to knit as I had hoped to, but that's ok. The nice thing about knitting is that it doesn't go bad and it's there anytime you want to work on it. The lovely yarn I am working with is Coquette from Wanton Fibers and is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere. To say that I want to roll around in it and rub it all over me would be an understatement! I am working on a new design, it's a bottom up shawl and I will have more details on it as it comes along.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Last month Robin Hunter contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating in an interview for her blog. There are a few blogs that I try to read on a regular basis and hers is one of them. She always has interesting information and I enjoy reading the interviews she does with other designers.

Robin posted the interview today. I'm really honored that she asked me! She asks a lot of good questions and if you were wondering more about me and my business, please check out her post: An Interview with Lara Smoot

For the past few weeks I have been getting ready for the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber. I've put together some "Ready to Knit" kits with a few of my patterns. These kits include the yarn, pattern and a stitch marker. All you will need are your needles to get started!

I will also be bringing some Mother of Dragons kits. They include a Limited Edition dragon
project bag, Mother of Dragons pattern and coordinating yarn. This is
just a little hint of the bag as I am putting the final touches on them:

I will be adding some project bags and kit's to my Etsy shop around the first week of May. I am really excited to be starting this new venture!

Speaking of excitement, the Spark KAL has been announced in the Bare Naked Wools group on Ravelry. We would love to have you join us. It begins on April 30 and Erica and I have some fun things planned for the KAL including a few contests along the way. If you are looking for something to knit for your Mom for Mothers Day, Spark is a perfect gift. Mom can wear it in the chilly spring air when she goes out for her morning walk, or in the evenings since the nights are still a bit chilly. Ok, who am I trying to kid here? When I spoke with Erica earlier this week she had 2" of snow at her house! It's definitely a late spring and Mom would sure appreciate a nice hand knitted Spark cowl to keep her warm. Check out these pictures from the look book photo shoot. Beth knitted the lighter colored Spark using all Bare Naked Confection and I knitted the darker one in Confection with Indieways Best Worsted for the contrast.

Friday, April 11, 2014

It is warm and absolutely beautiful here today. The Redbud tree in the front of our house is in full bloom and buzzing with bee's. One of my favorites, the Grape Hyacinths are blooming too. Our lilac bush has it's usual two blooms on it, but they haven't opened up yet. No matter what we do to that poor bush it refuses to produce more than a couple of blooms each year.

I've been busy getting ready for the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber on April 26. I'm putting together a few Ready Set Knit kits that will have one of my patterns and some luxury yarn paired with them. There will be an assortment of project bags and a few other goodies. Stephanie will be bringing some of her fabulous fiber related artwork, hand spun yarn and yarn bowls. If you are in the area be sure to stop by our booth! I just noticed that she has some of her paintings added to her Etsy shop: Spinderella I may wind up coming home from the festival with one. The colors are really fantastic in them!

I'm hosting a KAL in the Berry Colorful Yarnings group on Ravelry for Despicable Socks. The cast on date is April 15 and runs until June 1. Michelle and I are working on gathering up some prizes for the KAL. I hope you can join us for some Minion Mayhem!

The ladies from Dropped Stitches Podcast are having an Intersect KAL in their group. If you are interested in joining in and don't have the pattern yet, use coupon code: Merlot for 20% off until April 12. Julia and her sister Jennifer are a lot of fun and their podcast has a lot of good information from knitting and yarn to plants and wine. You can watch it here: Dropped Stitches Podcast

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About Me

My husband and I live in Central Virginia with the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains as the backdrop for our home. We spend most of our free time together and I feel very fortunate that Im married to my best friend.
I started designing and writing patterns as a way to express my love for the beautiful yarns that find their way into my stash. I love being able to create a new design for a special yarn. I hope that you will enjoy knitting my patterns as much as I have enjoyed designing them.
Follow me on my Facebook page - Lara Smoot - Designs for pattern release dates and sneak peeks at what I’m working on.